After several weeks of thinking about it, I’ve switched to a new theme for Media Nation. (“Theme” is WordPress-speak for “design.”) I’m still on the lookout for something better, but for now I think this will be an improvement. Why did I do this?
• My previous theme, Lovecraft, struck me as a bit too artsy for what I was looking for. The new theme, Twenty Sixteen, is more straightforward and newsier.
• As one of WordPress’ official themes, Twenty Sixteen receives regular maintenance updates. Lovecraft hadn’t been updated since 2022.
• With Lovecraft, you couldn’t see a link for commenting unless you clicked through to the individual post. As a result, I had to add “Leave a comment | Read comments” by hand to each post. Twenty Sixteen not only handles that automatically, but it gives you a count of how many people have commented. That way, you’ll know whether it’s worth clicking or not.
• Change is good.
Let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions for a better theme, I’m all ears.
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The days of newspaper boxes are long gone. They began to disappear after 9/11, before newspapers began to shrink or disappear. And the word Media encompasses more than print journalism. I’ll put on my thinking cap for another suggestion.
I’m talking about the design, not the header photo. I like retro images, so I chose that. I’ve got some stuff in my own files, but none of it is horizontal enough.
I’ve liked the 2106 theme since first trying it out in 2016, it’s a nice clean classic theme.
I recently updated a site to Twenty-Twenty Four for similar reasons. I haven’t used Twenty Sixteen, but you should be able to move the header image above the menu. Then either photoshop the site name and tagline into that image, or have the name and tagline over the image (it should work in white text with that image). That way your content would appear above the fold. It is below the fold on my browser/laptop.
I just tried removing the header photo, which moves the type up. There are already plenty of images on the front. Maybe this is better?
I liked your header image, but this works, you usually try to include an image with your posts so there will be a graphic on the front page anyway.
I will follow wherever you go
Looks nice, but point 3 is of particular interest to me—now I don’t have to click through to comments when I don’t know if there are any, and I can see whether any were added since the last time I checked. Easier for you, easier for us!
I don’t know if it’s the design, the blue type, or the photo, or all three, but when I checked in, I actually thought I got an old version of Media Nation. It’s readable, which is a plus, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily more modern looking. Perhaps use a different photo and change color scheme. In addition, while this looks more “newsy” in a 2012 sorta way, I thought the other template looked more appropriate for analysis, which is more what you offer.
Also, FYI: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/31/al-jazeera-journalist-cameraman-killed-in-gaza-attack
p.s. looks better already without the photo
I like this theme.
On a sort of relalted topic, wondering if you have received any feedback about yr email links not working.
oops. related.
Nancy, could you explain what you mean about email links not working? I’m not aware of a problem. Be as specific as you can so I can help you suss it out.